Arctic Dawn (The Norse Chronicles, Book 2) by Karissa Laurel

Source: I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.Genre: Fantasy, ParanormalFormat: eBook, PrintPublication Date: July 5, 2016

Back Cover

Alone and exhausted after her month-long sojourn as a shooting star, Solina Mundy flees to southern California to lie low, recuperate, and plot a survival strategy. The one person she trusts to watch her back is her best friend, Skyla Ramirez. But Skyla has been missing for weeks.

The arrival of a dangerous stranger and the discovery of a legendary weapon of mass destruction forces Solina out of hiding and back into the fight for her life. Solina knows she won’t last long on her own. She must find out what happened to Skyla and unite her contentious allies if she hopes to track down this devastating weapon before her enemies use it to burn the world to ash.

Summary

After the events at the lake in Midnight Burning, Solina takes on a new identity and lays low for a while. However, Solina's mythological ties continue to pursue her in the form of fiery dreams and a mysterious stranger. After an attack by this mysterious stranger, Solina finds herself returning to Thorin and Baldur for help in finding Skyla and preventing Helen from starting Ragnarok.

The fiery dreams lead Solina and Thorin to a legendary sword that is capable of stopping Helen and her allies; unless she gets her hands on it first.

Review

There is a lot going on in this second installment of The Norse Chronicles. The overarching plot is the mission to prevent Ragnorak, but there are a lot of subplots that need to be resolved before Solina and her allies can go head-to-head with Helen. Some might argue that all of these tangents detract from the plot, but I think that they add to the plot's mythological origins. If you look at Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythology, each god/goddess has different motives and those motives play a crucial part in the lore. Laurel does a great job of keeping these different threads straight so that readers can follow along.

I liked learning more about the different characters in the book; Laurel really developed Solina, Thorin, Baldur, Val, and Skyla and put a unique and fresh spin on legends of Norse gods. I was ecstatic to see that Solina made the decision to evolve from a dependent, squishy mortal into a force that must be reckoned with.

There are a couple of twists in the plot, and I was not surprised by the twist in which one of the group's allies betrayed them. It was just a matter of seeing certain clues coupled with the knowledge that the gods and Aesir are a self-centered and fickle bunch.

I am a bit skeptical of the romantic subplot because a romance between a god and a mortal rarely ends well in most legends. I am interested in seeing how the romance plays out in future books.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Laurel does a good job of keeping the legends and gods from Norse mythology fresh so that they fit in with the modern setting, there is always something going on to keep readers engaged, and the romantic subplot is intriguing enough to make readers want it to work out. If you enjoy reading contemporary, urban mythology novels, Arctic Dawn is a must-have for your library!